“Mommy, when you were a little kid, did you bite your toenails, and were they hard, too?”
Yuuuckkk!
Monthly Archives: September 2007
Happy Fall
Tomorrow is the first day of Fall. So, Kaia and I started celebrating by heading to the Annual Plow festival at Warren Wilson College. Every year, tons of people come out with their old timey plows and draft horses and plow the fields for the college. There was also fresh pressed apple juice, a black smithing demonstration, pie tasting, bbq, face painting, and wagon rides.
The house is moving along… we finished putting on all the layers of roof insulation, the plumbing passed inspection, and Toby built 3 pocket doors (one for Kaia’s room, for the master bedroom, and in the linen closet) to save space and ’cause they are cool! Because of all the funky angles in a 16-sided house, we also have a secret room and a built in bookshelf in Kaia’s room, a secret cubby in the guest room, built-in shelves in the hall, a large pantry, and an office cubby under the stairs. This house is going to ROCK!!
Happenings at the homestead
Animals
The chickens are doing well. Still laying a bunch. Since they got use to laying in their boxes, they still go back their to lay even though they are completely free range now. No problems with predators, but we’ll see how that goes once the cold weather comes along and food gets more scarce.
Our two new hives are doing well. They seem strong. We’ve started feeding them their winter sugar syrup. They had a huge field of ragweed and goldenrod to gather pollen from, so they should have enough protein to last them through the winter.
House
Things are moving along well at the house. We are working on getting the stairs in (with the funky angles in our house, this is a bit of a chore). They are made of Oak and Ash and I can’t wait to try them out. I know Suki (the dog) will be happy that she can finally explore the upstairs too. The plumbers are coming out tomorrow, and we hope to do the electrical at the end of the month!
I’ve been having fun scrolling through Ebay finding lights, sinks, faucets, etc. Here is the sink I got for the master bath. It’s a glass vessel sink, so it sits above the counter. Cooooool, Eh???
This is the sink for downstairs… it’s a hand painted mexican Talavera drop in sink!
I’m also making some hand made paper sconces for a few of the rooms. I bought a pretty cheap glass sconce, traced it to make a pattern and added a few inches to each side to have room to fold the edges over. Then I used a spray adhesive and attached the paper, leaving the top rough and unfolded. Then, I used some dried curly willow branches and glued them (with a craft glue) onto the paper.
Here’s the final product… Cool eh? I thought these would look nice in our bedroom, and maybe in the from hall as you walk into the house.
My first burn!
My friend, Rob, got a new fire hoop and I got to help break it in! So here it is… my first hooping video and my first burn! My heart was beating 300 times a minute. Kaia was there to watch and she said, “Momma, I don’t think I’m going to do that when I grow up… it looks dangerous!” hehe, smart kid 🙂
Watch me!!
I can’t wait to do it again!!
The Few, The Proud, The taste-testers of Crisp Cat!
I spent some time this afternoon at the warehouse of Tree Huggin’ Treats – Crispy Cat Candy Bars, being a taste tester for their newest shipment. They are a local company that sells their delicious organic, preservative free, vegan candy bars nationwide! So, I got to sit down with 10 of the same candy bar and decide if I liked them or not, and why. I was amazed at the difference in flavors. I really could tell which ones had bad oils or nuts and which ones were really fresh and full-bodied. They take the results of their taste test and decide which ones are good enough to sell. Then, I got to go home with a big handful of Crispy Cats of all flavors! Really, I felt like Homer when he was the taste tester for Duff Beer! (It’s so nice to see a nice family making a go of a business and not going corporate, too!)
I have to say, my favorite is definitely the Mint Coconut Crispy Cat! You should definitely get your local store to carry them!!
Beautiful mama
This weekend I threw a Blessingway (kind of like a spiritual baby shower) for my good friend and business partner! She is 34 weeks pregnant with her first child. Her close friends came over and we had a circle to give her our blessings and love for her journey into motherhood. It was really beautiful. Then a friend of mine who is a henna tattoo artist came over to tattoo mama’s belly. Isn’t this beautiful??!!
Then the ladies there had their hands done too. The henna paste comes off after ~a day and there is a stain from the henna that is left. The tattoos can last anywhere from 2-4 weeks, so now when we look at our hands we will stop for a second to send mama good birthing energy. Cool, eh?
